BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Reflections of an introvert: Alyssa
Valdez before her Taiwan adventure

by rick olivares

In a few weeks’ time, Alyssa
Valdez will be a rookie… for a third time.

“The first time I stepped inside
Blue Eagle Gym, I felt so nervous. Do I belong here? Can I perform?”

Valdez recalled her rookie year with
Ateneo after she was recruited by Roger Gorayeb (who first watched her in Lipa,
Batangas before she moved to UST for high school). The jitters that she felt
were later replicated when she donned the colors of 3BB Nakornnont in Thailand
last year. “I had been to Thailand so many times while training with Ateneo but
playing there, living there for a while – on my own and not with anyone I know
-- I felt like a rookie again,” bared Alyssa of her stint there. “There was so
much to learn about the game and about myself.”

The language barrier as well as
the adjustment to Thai culture wasn’t difficult because of her trips there and
playing for Anusorn Bundit. She like former Ateneo team captain, Charo Soriano,
picked up on the language. But if there was nervousness then despite being
familiar, she up for a real challenge as she moves from the familiar to the
unfamiliar.

She’ll experience those rookie
feelings again when she joins Taiwanese club, Attack Line this coming October
5.

The Taiwan club first made
entreaties during the Asian Women’s Under-23 championships. At first, Valdez
thought it was a joke. Yet they were persistent. During the preparations for
the Sea Games, they pressed again and now Valdez listened. But before making
the jump, she consulted her club team, Creamline as well as her close circle of
family and friends.

The time away and the times alone
has given her a lot of thinking time. “You value what you have, your blessings,
friends and family… a lot. Most recently, I was talking to Jia Morado and the
last time the two of us enjoyed a championship was when we were playing
together in Ateneo. We’ve come close since but hindi pa. Kailangan magtrabaho
pa. Nothing is handed to you on a silver platter. You have to work hard for it.”

And the lass has worked hard.

There was a time money wasn’t
enough. Her school allowance back in Batangas was just enough to get to school,
eat, and get back home. “Pag uwi ko – zero zero,” she said of her allowance
then. “Sakto lang.”

However, the sacrifices, the
endless hours in a gym practicing, playing games…. playing through pain, hurt,
and disappointment have paid off. “School life was just studies and volleyball,”
she bared. “Sometimes I wished I could have joined an org but there wasn’t
time. But it has paid off. I am so thankful sa blessings.”

The blessings have been
championships, awards, and experiences she had never even dreamed about. “My
world before was Batangas, UST, Ateneo, and Thailand. Hindi ko ine-expect na makakapag-travel
kung saan saan to meet fans, plays games, or even conducts clinics. I ask ‘why
me? Pumapalo lang naman ako ng volleyball? I am no different from others?
Marami magaling talaga. Marami pa nga mas maraming championships?’”

More than the sporting glory the
game offers as a reward, Valdez admitted her best accomplishments are
graduating from college and building a house for her parents. She is shy to
discuss it. But as we are old friends dating back to her rookie year, she
obliged. “Dream ko makapagtayo ng bahay para sa parents ko and malapit na ito matapos.
Aside sa Ateneo diploma ko, proud ako dito na makapag-balik sa magulang ko.”

Aside from Alyssa’s earnings, she
saved almost every single centavo of her school allowance in her time in
Ateneo. And that amount too has gone into the construction of that family home
in Batangas. “Seeing that happen is just as good if not better than winning a
championship,” she said with a hint of a tear in her eyes.

These blessings have filled a
hole, a void that sometimes she feels. “The one thing I want is time… time to
be with friends and family. Time to do things alone. Ako? Introvert talaga ako.
I like watching movies alone. Hindi sa ayaw ko meron kasama. Iba rin when you’re
on your own. Pero like nung nasa Thailand ako, I felt so homesick and missed being
around familiar people. Kaso I learned to be stronger; to do things on my own.
I learned how to manage my time.”

Time is precious it is oft said.
For Valdez, time, in the form of a watch is one of two things she always packs
with her on a trip. The other being a rosary. “There is a rosary in every one
of my bags. Some of it bigay sa akin. A watch, I need to know the time.
Cellphone? I can live without it. I can go without it for a day or maybe more.
Hindi ako dependent on it. Simple lang naman ako -- boring.”

She laughs and in a minute turns
serious.

Her volleyball adventure isn’t
solely about herself – a voyage of discovery if you wish. Mayhap, a pursuit of volleyball
perfection. “I think for myself and all the volleyball players today, men and
women, and lahat ng involved – the goal it uplift the sport. To raise it to
another level. If we can inspire others to play the sport and to use it to get
an education, to earn a living, to give back to family, and to represent the
country, good yan.”

And so her upcoming rookie
season, a learning one, in Taiwan, is one such opportunity. “You can never be
too old to learn,” she summed up.